on microfiche

Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft

Printed Works, Manuscripts and Images from the German Baroque

Advisor: James H. Spohrer, University of California, Berkeley Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft IDC Publishers is delighted to present a collection of unique primary sources on the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft on microfiche. The material in this collection about ’s first learned society (founded 1617) will bring the German Baroque period vividly to life for researchers. The great Baroque scholar Martin Bircher spent thirty years collecting the materials presented here. The collection includes a great many printed books, manuscripts, copperplate engravings, maps and other graphic materials. These items cover a wide range of subjects, including law, art, religion, theology, history, near eastern philology, geography, music, hagiography and mathematics. The Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft collection will prove a valuable addition to any library which supports the study of Germany and Central Europe in the early modern period.

Discovery and experiment conception of the palm tree as the other art objects relative to the The German Baroque period, viewed source of countless material goods used Fruitbearing Society. His remarkable through letters and science, is marked in housing, clothing and nourishing the collection concerning the membership by a flowering of intellectual activity indigenous peoples of the new world and publications of the Fruitbearing within a dazzling array of new scholarly that Europe was in the process of Society includes over 685 printed fields. It is particularly interesting for discovering. The Fruchtbringende books, 335 manuscripts, students of German cultural history as it Gesellschaft was Germany's first such 300 copperplate engravings, and is the period in which the German learned society, and was one of its most 21 maps and other similar graphic language, after a long period of neglect, important in terms of the role it played materials. These items cover a wide once again became the medium for in encouraging the use of written range of subjects, in keeping with the scholarly and literary communication of German. interests of the Society's membership. the highest calibre. The Baroque was The manuscript materials, in particular, deeply imbued with the spirit of M. Bircher offer a rich variety of official documents and correspondence by and discovery and experimentation, and it The great Baroque scholar Martin about the members of the Fruitbearing gave rise to the creation of new styles Bircher spent thirty years collecting Society, and the graphic materials of literary craftsmanship. This books, manuscripts, engravings and culminated in the classical forms of German lyric, drama, narrative and epic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Baroque period can, with considerable justification, be regarded as the cradle of modern German literary culture.

Learned societies A particularly interesting aspect of the Baroque was the emergence of social structures that promoted literacy and the humanistic arts and sciences. Throughout Europe "learned societies" such as the Accademia della Crusca in were founded to bring scholars and writers together as well as to encourage humanistic discourse. In Germany, the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, or the Fruitbearing Society, was formed in 1617, and amongst other things, it set itself the task of propagating German as both a scholarly and literary language. The Fruitbearing Society was also known as the Palmenorden (Order of the Palms) because its emblem was the then very exotic coconut palm tree, and its motto was “Alles zu nutzen” – everything for Illustration from: Christian Friedrich Wilisch. Index bibliotecae ... in vsvm ill. gymnasii Fridericiani a purpose – in keeping with the German Altenbvrgi avgescit. Altenburg, 1721. provide a unique source of primary information from this period.

Eminent authors Representative of the kind of rare and valuable printed works in the collection is ' Ausführliche Arbeit Von der Teutschen HaubtSprache, published in 1663. Conceived as a vehicle for the propagation of "correct" German and as a tool for linguistic unification of the German-speaking lands, there is no more significant publication in the annals of the Society. Schottelius, known as "Der Suchende" or "The Seeker" to his Fruitbearing brothers, attempted to create an exemplary vocabulary of German based on the works of contemporary authors, and in the process has created more than just a Illustration from: Kaspar von Stieler. Die Teutschen Sprache Stammbaum und Fortwachs ... Nürnberg, dictionary of the language, but rather as 1691. Martin Bircher writes, "eine kleine barocke Literaturgeschichte." Curt bestows upon the prince a generous been compiled combined with the Faber du Faur was of the opinion that travel pass, which allows him to pursue scholarly thoroughness of its this work makes him "if not the father, a badly-needed cure at the baths in cataloguing make it a truly unique then the grandfather of Germanic Wildungen. Other important letters to resource for both students and advanced philology”. Similarly the collection is Ludwig include those from Maria scholars alike. For researchers, it is a rich in other rare volumes and first Eleonore, Queen of Sweden, widow of breathtaking collection of primary editions by many eminent German Gustavus Adolphus, and from the sources which vividly portray the period Baroque literary authors such as Martin Emperor Ferdinand III dated 23 August and place. Furthermore, it serves as a th Opitz, , Georg Philipp 1645, in which he summons his electors microcosm of 17 century German Harsdörffer, Johann Philipp to a peace treaty congress to be held in culture which stands in stark contrast to Moscherosch, Friedrich von Logau, and Osnabrück or Münster later that year – the terrible depredations that marred a Philipp von Zesen. the first step on the long path which led great part of that period. to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Autograph documents Pictorial materials James H. Spohrer The autograph documents in the University of California, Berkeley collection offer another exciting Likewise the iconographic materials in dimension to students and scholars of the collection give a vivid sense of the the period. They range from the official persons, places and artistic themes of records of the Society to private the German Baroque. Many portraits of correspondence between, to and from Society members have been included, Society members. Those concerning as well as the “ emblems ” or coded Prince Ludwig I of Anhalt-Köthen are engravings which depicted their most reasonably representative of the striking personal characteristics and collection’s scope and breadth: Martin gave rise to each member’s Bircher collected 26 distinct items in “cognomen” in the Society, the connection with Ludwig, which vividly sobriquet by which he was known to detail the political turmoil surrounding other members. Other valuable kinds of the confessional disputes raging in pictorial materials include maps and Germany at that time. Among them are aerial views of cities, ornately decorated a letter from Wallenstein to Ludwig in proclamations and decrees, and various response to the latter's entreaties that sorts of highly inventive tables and Wallenstein's army spare the graphs which codify the elements of principality of Köthen, in which German grammar and word formation. Ludwig writes of "the deplorable condition of this miserable country" and Valuable addition of the fields, which "lay unsown, bare The Fruitbearing Society collection is a and deserted, the cattle and victuals valuable addition to any library that eaten up, the landscape ruined, credit supports the study of German and wiped out and all the country’s property Central European history in the early gone." Wallenstein's response to modern period. The careful and Ludwig is reassuring and indeed knowledgeable manner in which it has General information Prices Scope 685 books Current prices and order information 335 manuscripts are printed on a separate insert, 300 copperplate engravings enclosed in this brochure. If this leaf is 21 maps missing, please contact IDC Publishers and we will send it to you as soon as Number of fiches 3,857 possible, free of charge. Size of fiches 105 x 148 mm Film type Positive silver halide Reduction ratio Varies according to the size of the original Internal Eye-legible header with collection title and Bircher catalogue finding aids number on every fiche Bibliographic Core level cataloguing records in MARC21 format will be information delivered with all monographs (807 records) ordered. All graphic materials and manuscripts will be provided with finding aids in EAD format. Title information is also available online, please see below under “External finding aids”.

External finding aids • All titles in the microfiche collection are accessible online at IDC Publishers’ web site (http://www.idc.nl).

• IDC Publishers supplies customers who buy the complete collection with the printed catalogue: Martin Bircher, Im Garten der Palme. Katalog einer Sammlung von Dokumenten zur Wirksamkeit der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft mit Beigabe eines Auststellungskataloges (1991) (Wolfenbütteler Arbeiten zur Barockforschung 32). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1998. 2 v., 795 p., 410 ills. (ISBN 3-447-04017-3). This catalogue is also available separately through IDC Publishers.

Illustration from: Matthäus Merian. Die Palme der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main, 1646.

Cover illustration from: Friedrich Wilhelm Barthold. Geschichte der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft. Berlin, 1848.

Photographs by Peter Moerkerk.

For more information please contact any of the following addresses For North American customers only The Netherlands Phone +31 (0)71 514 27 00 North America Phone 212 271 5945 IDC Publishers Fax +31 (0)71 513 17 21 IDC Publishers Inc. Toll free 800 757 7441 P.O. Box 11205 E-mail [email protected] 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1801 Fax 212 271 5930 2301 EE Leiden Internet http://www.idc.nl New York, NY 10118 E-mail [email protected]

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